Sliding sleeve well tool



Aug. 23, 1960 H. E. M GOWEN, JR.. EI'AL 2,94

SLIDING SLEEVE WELL TOOL Filed Jan. 28, 1957 5 Sheets-Sheet l H. 5. M 'owen, (/r. 3. 5. 170/790 INVENTOILS BY W7 ATTORNEY 1960 H. E. MCGOWEN, JR., ET AL 2,949,963

SLIDING SLEEVE WELL TOOL Filed Jan. 28, 1957 W 24 "WA 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 /7. E. M 6owa/7, Jr.

ATTORNEY Aug. 23, 1960 H. E. MCGOWEN, JR., ET AL 2,949,963

SLIDING SLEEVE WELL TOOL Filed Jan. 28, 1957 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 .f. M Gowan, (/f.

E. flO/f/fl INVENTORS BY gem) Aug. 23, 1960 H. E. MOGOWEN, JR, ETAL 2,949,963

SLIDING SLEEVE WELL TOOL 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Jan. 28, 1957 Afa 42 H. E. M G Wen /r. #0. E. fluff/n ATTOR/VEV' Aug. 23, 19% H. E. MCGOWEN, JR, ETAL 9 SLIDING SLEEVE WELL TOOL Filed Jan. 28, 1957 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 H. E. M Gowan, (/r. fl. E. fiaff/n INVENTORS BY g a 42 SLIDING SLEEVE WELL TOOL Harold E. McGowen, Jr., Houston, and Douglas E. Daffin, Pasadena, Tex., assignors to Cameo, Incorporated, Houston, Tex., a corporation of Texas Filed Jan. 28, 1957, Ser. No. 636,765

4 Claims. (Cl. 166-224) This invention relates to oil and gas well equipment and more particularly to improved mechanism for easily and quickly o'pening and closing a subsurface port through the wall of a tubing string for fluid flow in the performance of workover and production operations. Such operations include the pumping from the surface of a cleaning liquid down thro'ugh the casing annulus and back up to the surface through the tubing string whereby mud or other matter to be removed from the circuit will become suspended or dissolved in the cleaning liquid stream and carried away. A preparatory step involves opening a normally closed window or flow port through the wall of a special tubing section or mandrel originally incorporated in the tubing string and located at a predetermined depth and which port must again be closed or covered upon completion of the workover job. For opening and later closing the port, wire line devices are lowered through the tubing string for grappling with the port closure, but these devices as heretofore employed are unreliable and awkward to control and often result in considerable time loss.

An object of the present invention is to provide an improved and fast acting wire line tool whose descent brings it into positive seating with a closed slide valve and then depresses the valve to a po'rt opening position and into abutment with a limit stop by which the tool is firmly landed in the tubing and thereby conditioned for the retraction of a telescopically fitted plunger to actuate a latch dog into a tubing carried keeper notch for securely anchoring the parts against accidental displacement.

A further object of the invention is to provide a valve actuating device in which a retracted latch actuating plunger can be projected to free the latching dog and lifted to pick up the entire tool assembly, whose first increment of upward travel is transmitted through a spring pressed pawl to the slide valve for carrying the valve to a port closing position and against an upper limit stop, whereupon resistance to further upward travel of the valve causes pawl release and complete freedom of the device for removal from the well.

Another object of the invention is to provide a valve actuating device which constitutes a tool support and properly locates a supported tool in packed oif relation to the side wall port once the device is landed on the tubing string and has opened the port for circulatory fluid flow and which well tool, by way of example, can be a plug for blanking off the tubing string immediately below the port or can be a reduced diameter extension pipe for directing fluid flow from the port downwardly through the tubing string exteriorly of the pipe extension and then upwardly through the extension pipe and the tubing string above the port.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent during the course of the following specification having reference to the accompanying drawings wherein Figure 1 is a simplified diagram as in vertical section of a tool support lodged within a tubing string and just prior to 1949,96? Patented Aug. 23, 1960 valve open; Fig. 5 is a transverse section on line 55 of Fig. 4; Figs. 6 and 6A are companion vertical sections with parts in elevation of the upper and lower portions of a tool support body latched in valve open. position and illustrating an alternate packing arrange,

ment; Fig. 7 is a fragmentary vertical section with parts in elevation of a selector key relation between the tool support and its mandrel; Fig. 8 is a view partly in verti-- cal section and partly in elevation showing a portion of the valve actuating device with the valve lifter pawl in contracted position during a tool removing operation; and Fig. 9 is an exploded view showing a lifter pawl and its mounting parts in perspective.

The tool support receiver is shown in the drawings as a special mandrel or nipple section 1 forming part of a tubing string which extends through the well casing 2 and is provided in its side wall with one or more flow ports 3 for communicating the tubing interior space and the exterior annular space around the tubing and within the casing 2. A slide valve or port clo'sure consisting of a cylindrical tube 4 is slidably fitted internally of the mandrel 1 and conveniently within an annularly relieved portion interiorly of the mandrel and which extends both above and below the ports 3 and is of an axial length greater than the length of the tubular slide valve 4 to accommodate valve travel between an upper po'sition overlapping and closing the ports 3, as seen in Fig. 2A, and a lower port uncovering position in which ports 3A in the valve come into alignment with the ports 3, as seen in Fig. 4. The top and bottom edges of the slide valve 4 afford upper and lower abutment seats 6 and 7 for co-operation respectively with top and bottom shoulders 8 and 9 internally of the mandrel, defining opposite ends of the valve receiving pocket and constituting limit stops at the ends of the range of slide valve travel between port closing and opening positions. An expansible split spring ring 10 is carried within an annular groove on the outside cylindrical face of the slide valve 4 and has snap-out engagement within axially spaced apart internal annular grooves 11 and 12 in the mandrel for yieldably resisting travel of the slide valve from port opening and closing positions respectively. O-rings 13 located within annular pockets interiorly of the mandrel and above and below the ports 3 are for bearing engagement with the slide valve 4 and seal against leakage through the running clearance space around the tubular valve. At a given distance above the uppermost valve limit stop 8, the mandrel is formed with an annular latch keeper notch 14.

A retrievable valve actuating and tool supporting device for detachable coupling with a wire line includes telescopically fitted inner and outer members. The inner member is a hollow tubular plunger 15 having limited vertical travel within a central opening through and slide bearing on the outer member. For convenience of manufacture and assembly, the outer member or barrel generally indicated at 16 consists of a number of separately formed sleeves or tubular sections 16a, 16b, 16c, 16d, and 16e threaded together in end to end succession. This sleeve assembly or barrel unit 16 .has an outside diameter throughout its major extent only slightly less than that of the central passage through the mandrel 1 and which preferably is somewhat smaller than the inside diameter of the tubing string proper, and

the mandrel is for close fitting reception and location of the barrel or tool support assembly. Radial clearance between the mandrel and the barrel is sealed ofi as by chevron type packing rings 17 and 18 carried by the barrel near its opposite ends for contact with the mandrel interior surface above and below the side ports 31: when the parts are in operative position, as seen in For affording limit stops to relative telescopic movement, an upwardly facing seating shoulder 19 and a' downwardly facing shoulder 20 are provided on the upper portion of the sleeve section 16a and are for co-operation with and are spaced apart axially a distance less than the axial spacing between a downwardly facing stop shoulder 21 and an upwardly facing seating shoulder 22 on the plunger 15. Abutment of the stop shoulders 20 and 22 establishes the limit of upward projection of the central plunger, as is shown in Fig. 2, and abutment of the stop shoulders 19 and 21 establishes the downward retraction limit.

An upper portion of the plunger extends beyond the top of the sleeve or barrel 16 and terminates in a necked head 23 over which can be snapped a conventional pulling tool, as indicated in Fig. 8, when the tool support assembly is to be raised and removed from the well. A known type of running tool (see Fig. 2) is a stud 24 whose upper end is for suspension connection, usually through a stroke jar, with a wire line and whose lower end terminates in a hammer head 25 fitted within an inverted cup 26 having its upper internal flange slidably fitted to the stud 24 above the head 25. As shown in Fig. 2, the cup 26 receives the upper end of the tool support with the lower cup edge seating on an external shoulder 27, just below the top of the uppermost sleeve section 16a. Preferably one or more shearable pins 28 are inserted through aligned openings in the cup wall and an annular groove in the upper end portion of the sleeve section 16a. Another shearable pin or pins 29 are carried by the cup in engagement with the underside of the plunger head 23 for holding the plunger in projected position. Although the shearable pins 28 could be omitted with reliance for suspension coupling solely on the pins 29, the use of both sets of pins provides a safety factor against accidental uncoupling inasmuch as the load is thus distributed between the several shear pins and none will have the whole of the weight concentrated on it.

In the design of the tool support assembly, a downwardly facing shoulder 30 formed externally of the sleeve section 160 is arranged for hearing abutment with the upwardly facing upper edge portion 6 of the slide valve 4, as seen in Fig. 2A, for transmitting downward barrel travel to the valve until its lower edge portion 7 lands on the mandrel seat 9. Thereafter further descent of the barrel and valve is stopped and all downward load is transferred into the tubing string mandrel, and in this position of the valve the ports 3 and 3A are in alignment. Coincident with the opening of the valve, the keeper notch 14 will have aligned vw'th it one or more laterally shiftable latch dogs 31 carried by the sleeve section 16A and spaced above the landing shoulder 30 a proper distance to insure latch dog and keeper alignment.

Each latch dog 31 is of G-shape. lts two legs are slidably fitted in spaced apart openings through the sleeve wall and the vertical connecting bar of the dog straddles and is located inside the sleeve wall portion between the openings. The lower leg of the latch is primarily a guide and is shorter than the upper leg. The upper latch leg is for reception within the keeper notch 14 but is of a length as not to project beyond the external sleeve surface when the plunger is upwardly projected and provides a region of ample clearance in back of the innermost bearing face of the C-shaped latch dog. Immediately above the dog bearing plunger region when the plunger is projected, there is formed on the plunger an annular external enlargement or camming boss 32 whose upper margin conveniently affords the stop shoulder 22 previously mentioned. The lower margin of the enlargement 32 is inclined downwardly and inwardly and is for slide bearing engagement upon plunger retraction with a correspondingly inclined upper and inner corner of the latch dog 31 so as to cam the dog outwardly into its keeper notch 14 upon initiation of plunger retraction. The dimensions of the parts are such that after latch dog projection further downward retraction of the plunger carries its enlarged boss 32 on down behind and into fiat bearing engagement with the inner bearing face of the latch dog so as to hold the latch dog securely within its keeper notch. Retraction of the plunger occurs upon the imposition through the hammer head 25 and upon the plunger head 23 of downward jar thrust through wire line manipulation from the top of the well. Downward pounding first shears the coupling pin 29 and then pushes down on the plunger.

It is desirable to prevent plunger upward projection and latch dog release except on proper exertion of a pulling force applied at the surface. Accordingly, the lower end of the plunger is provided with a series of annular ridges or ratcheting teeth 33 arranged to ratchet downwardly past corresponding ratchet teeth on a pair of arcuate segments 34 fitted within a pocket in the sleeve section 16b and embraced and yieldably biased inwardly by a pair of split spring rings. The toothed segments 34 are of soft metal so that their inwardly projecting ridges when inter-fitted with the mating plunger teeth will grip and hold the depressed plunger in latch keeper engagement in the absence of a sharp upward pull on the plunger as can be transmitted through a pulling tool for shearing off the soft teeth. Teeth cut in a steel plunger will last indefinitely, but the shearable segments 34, which can be of lead, aluminum, plastic or other inexpensive frangible substance, are easily replaced after each usage.

After ratchet tooth release of the plunger 15, its upward travel with a pulling tool shifts the enlargement or boss 32 above the latch dogs 31 so that the latter are free to contract for barrel release from the mandrel, and the plunger elevation brings the co-operating shoulders 22 and 20 into pickup abutment for carrying the barrel upwardly with the plunger and out of the mandrel 1. Simultaneously with initial upward barrel travel, the tubular valve 4 is raised to its upper and port closing position through engagement therewith by a spring pressed detent or pivoted pawl 35 carried by the sleeve section 16c.

As shown in the drawing, two diametrically opposed lifting pawls are employed, and each is a swinging lever arranged for projection and retraction at its upper end through a side window in the barrel and pivotally hinged at its lower end to a mounting sleeve or collar 36 slidably surrounding a reduced diameter portion of the sleeve section 16c for downward travel into a well or pocket 37 inside an upstanding peripheral skirt 38 on the sleeve section 16d. A hairpin spring 39 biases the pawl outwardly. As seen in Fig. 2A, the upper surface of the mounting collar 36 is held in bearing abutment with the sleeve section 16c by the insertion of a transverse pin 40 through the collar and the sleeve section 160. This pin 40 is of a shearable material and can be broken to release the mounting collar 36. With the frangible pin connection 40 in place, the spring pressed pawl 35 will snap out into an annular internal groove 41 in the tubular valve 4 whenever the landing shoulders 30 and 6 come into abutment and will so remain and be the agency for transmitting upward barrel travel through the upper end of the pawl 35 and the top edge of the groove 41 in raising the slide valve 4 to the limit afforded by engagement of the stop shoulders 6 and 8. When upward valve travel is stopped, the solid resistance encountered through pawl engagement will impose a breaking strain on the shear pin 40 and breakage of the pin will allow the mounting collar 36 to slide downwardly into the pocket 37 in the further rise of the barrel, whereupon the upper edge of the extended skirt 38 of the sleeve portion 16d will outwardly overlap and serve as a contact bearing to cam the pawl 35 inwardly for contracted retention behind the skirt and thus free the pawl from its keeper notch or groove 41.

Among the several control devices which can be suspended from the tool support assembly is a plug such as shown in Fig. 2A. It consists of an insert 42 fitted within the lower end of the bottom sleeve section 16e and secured by a shear pin 43 extending transversely through the insert and the sleeve section. The insert 42 is hollow from its upper end and just below the lateral port 44 positioned for communication with the valve port 3A and to a point just below the packing 18, and communicates with the tubing string therebelow through lateral ports 45 and 46 in the insert and sleeve section, respectively. The passage through the insert is normally closed against fluid flow in both directions by double reverse check valves aliorded by a pair of balls 47 and 48, with which the opposite ends of a coil spring 49 bear to seat both check valves. Thus the circulation of fluid from the casing annulus and into the tubing string will be directed upwardly.

During descent of the tool support on the end of a running tool, the upper check valve 47 will be contacted and moved from its seat by the lower end of a dependent extension stem 50 of the running tool, as illustrated in Fig. A. Thus, if there is a standing column of liquid within the tubing string which otherwise would resist descent, that entrapped liquid can act on the underside of the check valve 48 and lift it to pass the liquid upwardly through the open valve 47 as the tool moves downwardly. For the pulling operation, it is proposed to use a pulling tool which has a dependent stem 51 (see Fig. 8) to extend down through the tool support so as to contact and transmit a downward jar force into the upper end of the insert 42, which will break the shear pin 43 and move the insert to a position in which the port 46 communicates with the annular space around the insert and which previously was sealed oif, as by an O-ring 52 carried by the insert in bearing contact with the sleeve section 16e above the side port 46. This will open the tool for liquid flow downwardly through it and relieve resistance to upward barrel travel.

When a clean-out operation is to be made, the parts will be positioned in plunger projected relation and fastened at the surface above the well by shear pins to a running-in tool, as shown in Figs. 2 and 2A, and then lowered by a wire line into the well tubing string. Upon descent to the valved mandrel, the landing shoulder 30 first comes into abutment with the upper edge or seat 6 of the slide valve 4 and either the weight of the assembly or a downward jar shock transmitted through the abutting shoulders will cause the spring ring to contract from its upper keeper notch 11 and permit the slide valve to move on down with the tool support to the bottom limit, in which the lower valve edge or shoulder 7 rests on the mandrel carried landing seat 9 and the valve ports 3, 3A, and 44 are now aligned with one another and the spring ring 10 is within the lower keeper notch 12. With the barrel l6 landed against further descent, a downward jar shock transmitted through the running tool stem 24 and its head 25 will be received on the plunger head 23, and after the shear pin 29 is broken, the plunger will be depressed and its enlargement or boss 32 will project and positively hold the latch dogs 31 within their keeper notch 14, and concurrently the ratchet teeth 33 and 34 will have slipped over one another for holding the plunger in retracted position. Since the barrel 13 is thus latched against upward travel, a sharp upward jarring of the wire line will break the shear pin 28 and release the running-in tool for Withdrawal. Should the latching a dependent stem 51 and a series of spring fingers 54 to snap over the plunger head 23, as seen in Fig. 8. An upward tug on the wire line will be received on and cause the ratchet teeth on the segments 34 to be sheared off and thus free the plunger for upward projection in which the plunger boss 32 moves abovethe latch dogs 31 and leaves them ineffective. As the barrel 16 is picked up, it also lifts the slide valve 4 through the projected pawls 35, whose upper edges are in engagement with the downwardly facing margin of the annular notch 41. Such unisonal travel closes the previously aligned valve ports 3 and 3a and continues until the upper valve shoulder 6 again abuts With its stop shoulder 8 and the valve retainer spring 10 snaps into its upper groove 11. With valve upward travel being stopped, its resistance transmitted through the lifting pawl 35 and into the mountnig collar 36 breaks the shear pin 40 and releases the pawl mounting collar for retraction of the pawl, as illustrated in Fig. 8. The tool support assembly is lifted on out of the tubing string.

The structures shown in Figs. 2 and 2A and in Figs. 6 and 6A are the same except that the packing rings 17 and 18 in Figs. 2 and 2A are for engagement with the tubing string above and below the slide valve 4 and are spaced apart an axial distance somewhat greater than the similar packings 17a and 13a in Figs. 6 and 6A, which are engageable directly with the interior of the longer length slide valve.

For circulating liquid through the tubing below the valve ports, the previously referred to plug suspended at the bottom of the tool support barrel will be replaced by an extension tube 55 to project downward within the tubing string for any desired distance toward the bottom of the well. Accordingly, the lower part of the hollow tool support barrel will consist of a modified barrel section 16] which, as shown in Fig. 4, carries an O-ring 56 to bear on the slide valve just above the port therethrough and terminates in a dependent reduced diameter tubular portion to which the upper end of the extension tube 55 is coupled. With the parts lauded as shown, the liquid from the casing annulus flows through the aligned valve ports 3 and 3a and is directed downwardly through the tubing string and returns upwardly through the smaller diameter extension tube and the hollow barrel into the tubing string above the valved mandrel.

Some well installations may call for insertion within the tubing string of more than one valve mandrel, each at a dilferent depth, and in order to set the tool support and open the valve at a given mandrel, the co-operating mandrel and barrel may be constructed for a selective keying relation, as illustrated in Fig. 7. In this arrangement the operating parts are generally duplicative of those shown in Figs. 2 and 2A except in the region between the valve lifting pawl and the latching dogs. Thus the slide valve 4d extends farther upwardly to provide for the location of a pair of axially spaced apart internal annular grooves 57 and 58, shown as of different axial lengths. These grooves are for reception of correspondingly long keying projections 59 and 60 on a pair of oppositely disposed lateral shiftable shoes 61 carried by the tool support. Each shoe is semicircular and its top and bottom ends are relieved at spaced points for overlapping retention behind axially extended ears 62 on a pair of rings 63 positioned near opposite ends of the barrel section 16g. A wire spring 64 behind each shoe tends to bias the shoe outwardly. When properly matched shoes and notches are in alignment, they interfit on downward travel of the barrel and transmit barrel movement downwardly to open the valve. Making either or both of the grooves 57 and 58 in successively deeper mandrels of progressive greater length and providing a number of barrels with keying shoes each to fit one mandrel, any valve can be opened by selecting the proper barrel Whose shoes will ride over smaller notches and snap into the selected notch with which it corresponds.

The use of the running-in tool and the use of the pulling tool for controlling and securing the valve and the tool support are the same in each of the forms shown. Various modifications of the embodiments described can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention except as limited by the appended claims.

What is claimed is: v

1. In combination with a well tubing mandrel comprising a pair of concentrically nested inner and outer tubes, the outer of which is for connection in a well tubing string and has in axially spaced relation a port through the wall thereof and an internal latch keeper notch and the inner of said tubes being slidable in the outer tube between an upper port covering position and a lower port uncovering position and said inner tube having axial- 1y spaced apart shoulders respectively facing upwardly and downwardly and said tubes having co-operating limit stops for their relative slide travel, a retrievable tool operatively positionable within the mandrel and comprised of a barrel and a plunger slidably mounted within said barrel and shiftable between upwardly projected and downwardly retracted positions relative to the barrel, said tool with its plunger in projected relation being adapted to be lowered and raised within a tubing string to and from a position within the mandrel for co-operation therewith, axially spaced apart sealing surfaces 1011 said barrel for co-operation with said mandrel above and below said port to block fluid flow around the barrel, a downwardly facing landing shoulder on the barrel arranged to come into engagement with the upwardly facing shoulder of the inner tube and to transmit downward barrel travel to said inner tube to its lower limit stop and such shoulder engagement at the inner tube lower travel limit serving to locate the barrel against further descent, an outwardly biased pawl pivotally carried by the barrel and arranged to snap out beneath said downwardly facing inner tube shoulder coincidentally with the engagement of the barrel landing shoulder with the inner tube and for engagement with said downwardly facing inner tube shoulder in transmitting upward barrel travel to said inner tube to its upper limit stop, a pivotal support for said pawl having a frangible connection with the barrel for breakage of the connection in response to barrel upward travel and resistance through said pawl engagement with the stopped inner tube, a barrel carried contact bearing engageable with the pawl upon upward barrel travel relative thereto for the retraction of the pawl from beneath said down- Wardly facing inner tube shoulder, a laterally shiftable latch dog carried by the barrel in retracted position when said plunger is projected and in such spaced relation with landing shoulder as to be aligned with said keeper notch when the barrel has been stopped against further descent, a camming formation on the plunger operative on plunger retraction to push and hold the latch dog outwardly, a barrel locking connection between the barrel and the retracted plunger arranged for release in response to upward pulling force on the plunger and interengageable surfaces on the plunger and the barrel limiting plunger projection travel and enabling support of the barrel through the plunger.

2. In the combination as set forth in claim 1 wherein a series of mandrels are incorporated each at a diiferent depth in the tubing string and the mandrels contain annular internal grooves which in successively deeper mandrels are of increased length and a series of retrievable tools having outwardly spring pressed selector keys for reception in said grooves and of lengths differing from one another and in matching correspondence each with a different one of the internal grooves.

3. In the combination as set out in claim 1 wherein said sealing surfaces on the barrel are provided by packing elements arranged to slide into sealing engagement with the inner tube of the mandrel.

4. In the combination as set out in claim 1 wherein said sealing surfaces on the barrel are constituted by packing elements arranged for sealing engagement with the outer tube of the mandrel.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

